To Go Back In Time
by StarFire and Sakura
Summary: I'm going back in time. Will you come with me? [Slight UlquiHime]
1. Chapter 1

The walls of the room were pure white, like snow; but she swore, sometimes, when she looked at it from a certain direction, it was a pale gray, barely stained.

"Girl." A sharp voice awoke her from her bizarre thoughts, and she turned to face him. His emerald eyes gazed piercingly at her, an eternal frown plastered beneath.

"Eat your food." It was the third time he had said it, and she was expecting the familiar phrase. The food sat on its place, barely touched, though she did not want to eat it, freezing cold as it was.

"Hey, Ulquiorra-san," she asked, voice inquisitive.

"What?" he questioned exasperatedly.

"Why are there tear marks running down your face?"

Indeed, black streaks fell down his face, perfectly contrasted against his pale skin, looking like black tears or perhaps black ink.

_In that case, wouldn't his skin be a book... not leatherbound, a really nice one, one of the new ones with creamy pages and the gold lining... _

"...it doesn't matter."

"Of course it does." Her tone was absolute, her eyes thoughtful.

His eyes narrowed at this, quite annoyed at the fact that he was confused. He didn't like being confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you cry as a human?"

He was bewildered, but mustering up all his skills at being numb, he masked his emotions and kept his expression blank.

"Were you... sad?"

He stared at her, just barely keeping his mask in place. Her eyes looked at him sorrowfully... pitifully.

"Do you remember it?"

Again, he stayed silent. He would not tell her. He would not tell anyone, not even Aizen-sama. Not his most precious secret.

His only secret.

"...just eat your food, woman."

And with that, he left.

---

She wondered if he really did remember his life.

She wondered if it really was sad, if he really did cry.

And then, with a start, she realized she didn't wonder.

She _knew._

And she wondered if that was what made him an arrancar. The sorrow in his life. She wondered if that was what made any arrancar – being knocked down and kicked in the dirt by the terrible thing called life. The pain you just couldn't overcome.

_Not alone, _she thought, _not alone._

Not alone...

And after her spur of the moment decision, she started to concentrate her powers.

---

He walked through the walls an hour later, hoping fervently she had finished her meal. He did not like force feeding her. It was annoying.

The door opened silently, and he stood still.

She sat on the bed, holding a pair of glimmering silver scissors, and he was quite perplexed as to where she had gotten them from. Most shocking of all, however, was her hair.

Formerly ending at halfway down her back, it now barely touched her shoulders, and she held the discarded hair in her scissor free hand, looking at it listlessly. It sat without luster, strands slowly falling to the floor. Her eyes slowly closed, and she turned to him and opened them.

"Hello, Ulquiorra-san. I've eaten my dinner."

And to his even greater surprise, she wasn't lying. But that couldn't distract him. If she could conjure scissors out of thin air, there was no saying she couldn't conjure a knife and injure herself with it.

"Woman, where did you get the scissors?"

She smiled softly at him, and the evening light began to filter through the windows.

"I made them," she stated calmly. Her eyes were now not listless, but warm and calming.

"Do you know why I cut my hair, Ulquiorra-san?" He didn't care; right now he didn't quite understand how she had created the scissors, and sought to know, for this might have been a new power to report to Aizen-sama.

However, he realized, she was likely not to answer him until after he played along with her little game.

"No." She stood up and, smiling, walked near to the small window far above her.

"To go back." Clothed in white, her hair glistening behind her, she was quite a sight to behold, but he could not be bothered by such trivial emotions.

"Go back?" She let out a small breath of happiness, and then whipped around, her hair whizzing around her, and her eyes shining, a smile on her face.

"To go back in time!" she said, grinning.

"And," she added, "you can come with me." She paused a moment, then held out her hand, as though he was supposed to take it despite being across the room from her.

"Will you travel back in time with me, Ulquiorra-san?" He did not know what he was supposed to say or do.

So he simply said, "Fine."

Chapter 1 Fin

Dunno how long this is gonna go – probably not more than 3 chapters, though.


	2. The First Time

Night had already fallen in Hueco Mundo, though if you said this to Ulquiorra, he would deny there was a night itself.

Currently, the arrancar stood across from her, similar to the positions they had been in the night before. She stood looking up at the small window placed high, near the ceiling, and slowly, she turned around.

"Are you going to go first?" she asked. He looked at her blankly. She seemed to ask whichever questions she knew would confuse him the most.

"No, I suppose not," she mused, seeming to know he would not answer. "So then, I will."

She closed her eyes for a moment, looking thoughtful, then opened them again. When she spoke, her voice was... was... mystical. And there was a sort of rhythm to it, too, as though she was singing a song he couldn't hear.

"Once, there was a girl..." And slowly, she painted a picture for him.

---

The gaze of the twilight sun pierced through the windows brightly as she finished her sweeping. With a swish of her skirt, she put the old broom away, her long hair flowing behind her.

She was Inoue Orihime.

She covered her eyes as the light of the sunset shone through the windows. It would not do to go blind. Her shoes were silent as she walked down the corridor, dreaming of a planet of candy, and magic carpets, and a wind that smelled like bubble gum...

"Hey. Inoue." She turned to look at the speaker, and to her surprise, saw not one, but three upperclassman.

"Um, hello..." These same people had confronted her before, she remembered. They told her to not stand out so much, though she was unaware how she did. She was simply friendly, and surely that could not be a crime. _Definitely not, in the tale of the flying bear and his pixie knights..._

"I thought I told you to stop standing out," the older girl snarled. Orihime winced; she didn't like angry words, words that fizzled like bile and were as scorching as fire.

"My deepest apologies if I offended you," she replied, quite puzzled. "But I don't—"

"Stop playing dumb!" the other girl shouted sharply. She took a step towards the now fairly frightened Orihime, who stepped back. _The tiger is coming, the tiger—_

"I... that is... what..." She squealed as the upperclassman suddenly lurched forward, seizing her arm and digging sharp nails into Orihime's flesh.

_She's been bitten, bitten; poor princess, poor princess, the dragon has her..._ The song was chanted in her head as the angry girl glared at her.

"Gimme those," she ordered her lackey. The aforementioned lackey scurried up to her, obviously only submitting to her will because of fear. She handed the vile girl a gleaming pair of scissors.

"Um, excuse me, what are you--!?"

"I don't like your hair." _She's caught, she's caught..._

"Eh?"

"Your hair stands out too much, stupid! So I'm gonna get rid of it for you!"

"Wha... wait! Wait, st... STOP!!" Orihime tore herself free from the girl, but was immediately caught again. She yelped as the upperclassman pulled back her hair, opening the scissors. Orihime's eyes began to water.

"Stop it!" Tears fell freely now, blurring her vision. _The rain, the rain, the sad, sad rain—_

The girl began snipping at her hair, cutting unevenly due to Orihime's struggles. The hairs, gleaming in the sun, fell to the ground, quickly losing their luster.

"Stop it! STOP IT!" she shrieked. She slapped the hand of the girl and ran, her shoes' racket echoing as she went.

---

"Hime, what happened to your hair?" Sora asked in surprise. He was still dressed in his work attire, and his eyes were wide in surprise.

"I just..." She had evened out the ends; but she now had to come up with a good excuse to explain to her brother about her sudden lack of hair.

Telling him the truth would just worry him, and she cared too deeply about him for that. _The princess cares about the prince, yes, yes..._ Suddenly, she transformed her rather melancholy expression into a cheerful smile.

"I just felt like a change, that's all!" she exclaimed, grinning. "Anyway, Nii-san, I'm tired from all the afterschool work I had to do, so I'm going to rest now!"

"Alright," he acknowledged. "There's food in the fridge that you can heat up; I have another shift tonight."

"I understand, nii-san!" And with that, she went into her room.

---

It was black.

Complete and utter black.

Something was there, slithering, slithering –

Orange hair moved like snakes across the ground; it was everywhere, everywhere.

She tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat. Her hair was short, very short; there were scissors in her hand.

"...hi...me..."

"Nii-san?"

He hung suspended by some invisible force, his eyes underlined by lack of sleep.

"Hime, why?" To her surprise, tears ran from his eyes.

"What...?"

Suddenly, the slithering hair reared up, snarling, baring its fangs. It leaped onto Sora, wrapping around him—

_It was strangling him._

"NII-SAN!" she cried, running towards him; her footsteps made no sound. "NII-SAN!"

"Why..." His words were being choked back by the hair.

"Why did you do it, Hime?" She froze. A gaping hole appeared in his chest, and blood poured openly from it. He had other wounds, too; stab wounds that screeched in pain.

"_Why?" _he demanded. As her horror increased, she looked down at the scissors in her hand.

They were covered in blood.

---

"Hime, are you alright?" It was morning, a gloomy Thursday morning. There wasn't even any rain.

"I'm fine, Nii-san. I just had a bad dream, that's all," she said with a small smile.

"Well, I know something that'll cheer you up!" he told her, grinning. "I got you a present."

"Eh? Really?" Despite her discomfort of her dream, she _loved _presents!

"Yes, here... close your eyes and hold out your hand." She did as he commanded and felt two small... things pressed into her hand.

"You can open your eyes now." Her eyes opened, and froze on the items in her hands.

Hair pins.

_I thought I told you to stop standing out!_

_I don't like your hair._

"Nii-san... Nii-san, how could you get me these!?" she cried.

"I—" he stuttered, taken aback.

"T...they're ugly! I hate them!" she yelled. Guilt flooded through her, but her mouth kept going in spite of it.

"Hime--!" She let out a cry and ran to a corner, staring at the wall.

Then there was silence. A terrible, terrible silence.

Not like the silence where the shock that such a wonderful thing could happen has stunned you; no. A silence where neither knew what to say, a silence that was so _empty._

Silently, he set down her breakfast near her.

Silently, she picked it up and began to eat.

Silently, they got ready for work and school, respectively.

"Bye, Hime," he said softly as he left.

For some reason, his back engraved itself in her mind.

She waited some time before leaving; if she waited long enough, she wouldn't see him as she walked to school.

The morning was dreary, and it was filled with that unbearable silence as she walked downtown. Once she got there, she knew, the silence would be gone.

_And the skies were dreary in P-tan's land..._

Out of nowhere, breaking the morning's sound (or rather, lack of), a squeal of tires ripped across the air. She jogged ahead to see what had happened, curiosity overflowing from her.

There was a crowd, gathered around the side of the street.

_This is a job for Detective Hime, the only princess detective to sail the seven seas!_

She pushed to the front of the crowd to look at the road, earning soft cries from the adults.

Her eyes widened.

The first thing she saw was the blood – there was so much, so much. It slowly spread, like waves of the ocean, crimson in color.

Then she saw him.

Time stopped.

She sucked in a gasp of breath; she was sweating, everything was swimming, buzzing. The world stopped in an instant and became gray and silent; it would always be dreary Thursday, always. The rain flooded the earth and skies, and everything drowned; but the rain was red.

_Red rain is coming down, red rain—_

"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

---

_Don't leave me!_

_Nii-san, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_

_So don't leave me alone!_

_Nii-san!_

_Don't go! Nii-san! Nii-san!_

No matter how loud she called...

...she got no answer.

---

She was...

Crying. Yes. Crying.

Nii-san.

"It's alright, it's alright..." A voice told her. "Don't c..." The words stopped on his lips, obviously useless.

She sobbed harder.

"It's alright... Inoue..."

A warm hand rubbed her back.

---

It was raining.

_The world is ending._

_The red rain will drown everyone._

_It will rain 40 days, 40 nights, but there's no arc, no savior, nothing—_

There was someone there.

_All the sea creatures even... the water's poisoned, bitter, vile—_

He stared at her with hollow brown eyes.

"I'm sorry."

She sobbed.

And the world came crashing down about her.

---

Her eyes opened again, and she stared at Ulquiorra with dark eyes.

"We're back."

He looked at her, more than slightly perturbed. She smiled at him.

"We went back in time, remember?" She answered his unasked question with something that made him more confused.

Certainly, it had been odd. Her words had not been a story; they had... taken him into her memories, so he could see it, smell it, taste it –

They had taken him back in time, goddammit.

"Are _you _going to lead _me _next time, Ulquiorra-san?" she asked with a mysterious smile. His eyes widened as he realized what she was saying.

And without another word, he spun around and walked out of the room, her question hanging unanswered in the air.

End

Yah, you know how I said 3 chapters? I lied. This is gonna longer than 3 chapters. XD;;;


	3. It Was Him

Ulquiorra stood silently, leaning against the wall as he stared at the girl. She sighed discontentedly.

"I guess you don't want to have a go?" No reply. "Then I suppose it's me again... hmm. Where was I...? Oh, I know..."

Almost immediately, there was a change in her eyes, and voice, and just her spirit altogether. There was a certain warmth he could not describe, a certain trait that just made her – made her –

"Once upon a time..."

---

The sun was setting again as the quiet _shff _of her shoes echoed into the empty street. Her eyelashes were dark and heavy over her eyes, almost glowing against her pale skin. Hair, bright orange, unevenly wavered as she walked, her arms trembling.

Pathetic. So pathetic. Couldn't even walk to Tatsuki-chan's karate practice without being scared out of her wits. It was all because of the nightmares. The nightmares of slithering hair and blood and _death. _

Glumly, she arrived at the karate dojo's entrance, and with a sullen glance, stepped inside.

The children all wore the same snow white clothes, and, observing them silently, she sat down at a conveniently placed chair against the wall.

There was Tatsuki-chan, her short black hair flapping as she kicked and spun and laughed. Even to one who knew nothing of karate, Tatsuki-chan was obviously a fast learner. With a final kick, she sent her opponent to the ground, laughing with her regular high hoot. Orihime smiled slightly, glancing at the now crying boy on the floor, before suddenly staring at him, eyes wide.

His hair was bright orange and tuffed; his eyes were a deep brown, and they sparkled with tears. She couldn't place it; it seemed like she had seen him before.

"Stop crying, will you!?" Tatsuki's voice. The boy only sniffed in response. "You wimp!"

Insulting, it seemed, was the last straw, as the boy, still with tears streaming, jumped up.

"I'm not a... I'm not a wimp! You're so mean...!" He sniffed again, and suddenly, through all the tension broke a clear, strong voice.

"Ichigo!"

He looked up suddenly, his tears dried, all his facial features suddenly changed. A smile broke out on his face, and suddenly his hair seemed to grow even brighter as he ran towards the source of the voice.

"Mom!"

She was beautiful – there was no denying it. Her hair was long and a beautiful shade of brown, silky and smooth. Her skin was pale, but her cheeks were a deep pink. Her smile was the best part, though. It created an indescribable feeling – like a light that had just been lit. She supposed it was the fact that the smile was just full of _love, _beautiful, relentless love. Orihime almost felt like running into the woman's arms – but that position was already occupied.

Tatsuki walked over, following Orihime's gaze to the embracing mother and son.

"I wouldn't waste your time on him. His mother's pretty, but he's a total wimp. Uggh." Tatsuki rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"What's his name?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo."

Kurosaki. Kurosaki Clinic.

That was it.

She suddenly wanted to scream at the two – _how dare you be happy, you were there, why is he dead, why didn't you save my brother _– almost, but she held back, because she remembered.

"_I'm sorry."_

"_It's alright, Inoue."_

The hand on her back. The brown eyes staring at her through the rain. The soft words of comfort that were the only line she held to sanity. The words that were the single drop of hope in the lake of darkness.

_It was him._

"Hey, Orihime?" She looked at Tatsuki surprisedly, just realizing how long she had been silent. "We're going now."

"Oh. Alright," she nodded.

And so they left, and when they did, she stared at the sight and engraved it into her mind. The picture of the beautiful mother embracing her son. The son parted from his mother, and they held hands and rushed out.

"We better hurry, Ichigo, your dad'll be mad if you miss the new episode—"

"Okay, Mom!"

As she looked at his retreating back, she murmured, "Thank you."

"Hm? Did you say something, Orihime?"

"No, Tatsuki." A silent smile. "It was nothing."

One day, she vowed, she would thank him. To his face. She would tell him how he saved her, and she would definitely save him, too – somehow, some way. Her vow would not be fulfilled until much, much later.

For now, she simply watched his retreating back, and her eyes, for the first time since her brother's death, sparkled as a blush grew across her cheeks.

---

Orihime gave a short laugh when she finished the story.

"That's when I met Ichigo, sort of," she said with a smile. Ulquiorra looked blankly at her.

"You really should, you know. You should be the one to guide us back next time." His eyes narrowed.

"Because – it doesn't really have value if you don't do it yourself." She looked at him with piercing eyes that somehow chilled him and gave him the urge to – to – to almost _embrace _her, goddammit.

He turned away from her, but he could feel her eyes, watchful and warm, follow him all the way out.

End chapter ----

I'm sorry, it's been a while, but I've been low on inspiration. :( This chapter... I'm not sure how I feel about it. I definitely don't love it, but I don't think I hate it. Anyway. I already have the beginning of the next chapter on my mind. For those who are waiting for Ulquiorra's story... don't worry. :)


End file.
